Rev 11 | EE | STEP | Someone gave me a stick, like the sticks that people use to measure things. He told me, ‘Go and measure the size of God’s great house. Also measure the altar where people offer gifts to God. Also count the number of people who worship God there.

Revelation of John 11

God’s two servants

1 Someone gave me a stick, like the sticks that people use to measure things. He told me, ‘Go and measure the size of God’s great house. Also measure the altar where people offer gifts to God. Also count the number of people who worship God there. 2 But do not measure the yard that is outside God’s house. Do not measure it, because God has given that yard to Gentiles who do not believe in him. They will go everywhere through God’s own city and they will destroy it for 42 months.

3 I will give authority to my two servants who speak my message clearly. Like prophets, they will tell people my message for 1260 days. They will wear cloth made from goats’ hair.’ ^{▼▼11:3 Sackcloth was a rough cloth made from goats’ hair. It was not comfortable to wear. Jews wore sackcloth to show that they were very sorry or very sad.}

4 These servants are the two olive trees and the two lampstands. They stand in front of God who is the Lord of the earth. ^{▼▼11:4 God showed his prophet Zechariah two olive trees and a gold lampstand. See Zechariah 4.} 5 If anyone tries to hurt them, fire comes out of the servants’ mouths. This fire destroys their enemies. Anyone who wants to hurt the two servants must die in this way. 6 These servants of God have authority to shut up the sky. Then there will be no rain during the time that they tell their messages from God. They also have authority to cause the water on earth to become blood. They can also cause people to have many kinds of illness. They will do this as often as they want.

7 When these two servants of God finish speaking God’s messages, a wild animal will attack them. This is the animal that lives in the deep hole. It will come up out of the hole. ^{▼▼11:7 We read about this deep hole in Revelation 9:1,2.} It will be stronger than the two servants and it will kill them. 8 Their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city where people killed their Lord on a cross. ^{▼▼11:8 People killed Jesus Christ on a cross at Jerusalem city in Israel. The leaders of Israel’s people caused Jesus to die there. They refused to recognise him as Lord.} This city should be called Sodom or Egypt, because it is as bad as those places. ^{▼▼11:8 Sodom and Egypt were also places where the people did not obey God. See Genesis 18:20-21; 19:13, 24-25 and Exodus 1:13-14.}

9 People from everywhere in the world will look at the servants’ dead bodies for 3.5 days. Those are people from every country, from every family group and from every language. They will refuse to let anyone bury the bodies. 10 The people who live on the earth will be very happy because the two servants of God are now dead. They will send gifts to each other because they are so happy. These two prophets of God had caused bad trouble for them, but now they have died.

11 But after 3.5 days, God put his Spirit into those dead bodies. He caused them to become alive again. They stood up. The people who saw them were very afraid. 12 Then God’s two servants heard a loud voice that came from heaven. The voice said, ‘Come up here.’ They went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies watched them. ^{▼▼11:12 The two servants speak God’s messages to the people who are living on the earth. They may be two special people who will come one day. Or they may be like a picture of Christians all over the earth. The number two is important. Among God’s people long ago, there had to be two or more people to agree that something was true. Then they could say that it had really happened, and people would believe that it was really true. See Deuteronomy 19:15. This shows that the message which the two servants speak is really true.}

13 At the same time the ground moved strongly. It moved so much that one in every ten buildings in the city fell down. And 7000 people died there because the ground moved. The other people who were still alive became very afraid. They praised the God of heaven and said that he is very powerful.

14 That is the second great trouble and it has now finished. But the third great trouble will come soon.

The seventh trumpet

15 The seventh angel made a sound with his trumpet. Then there was the sound of loud voices in heaven. They shouted:

‘Our Lord God and his special Messiah now have all authority!
The whole world has become their kingdom.
God will rule them for ever!’

16 The 24 leaders were sitting on their thrones in front of God. Now they threw themselves down on their faces and they worshipped God. 17 They said: ‘We thank you, Lord God, because you have all authority!
You are alive now and you have always been alive.
You have great power and now you have begun to rule the whole world!
18 The countries of the world were very angry.
But now you have become very angry with them,
becuse they do not believe in you.
Now you will judge all the people who have died.
You will give good things to your servants.
Those are your prophets and all your people who worship you.
Some of them are important people, and some are not important.
You will give good things to all of them.
But you will destroy all those people who destroy the earth.
The time has now come for all this to happen.’

19 Then I could see God’s great house in heaven. Inside it, I saw God’s special agreement box. ^{▼▼11:19 Many years ago, God told Israel’s people to make a special box. He told them to keep the box in his special house. See Exodus 25:10-22. The box made them remember God. They remembered that God had promised to live among them. He had agreed to be their God if they would obey him.} There was a great storm with bright lightning and the loud noise of thunder. The ground moved strongly and strong rain with stones of ice fell from the sky.